Hello and welcome to 2020 and your new NCSLI Measure: The Journal of Measurement Science.
The VIM defines metrology as measurement science and its application, noting that it “includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement, whatever the measurement uncertainty and field of application.” Metrology crosscuts nearly all industrial, consumer, and technical fields. Recognizing metrology’s breadth and depth, Measure seeks to encompass the entire metrology audience: scientists, engineers, technicians, laboratory managers, statisticians, and all the other practitioners and researchers with whom they interact. It seems akin to addressing a measurement's entire set of error sources and their correlations (interactions).
With metrology’s full scope thus in mind, this Measure issue begins a new content mix, featuring measurement science, measurement engineering, and technology topics. Future issues may also contain test and measurement tips, brief communications, calibration methods, insights and perspectives, or road maps on future metrology directions. We will occasionally focus an issue on themes of timely interest or our partner conferences.
Though we will continue anonymous peer reviews, we will tailor those reviews to match article content in order to optimize submissions for our readers and the publication process for our authors. We invite all authors, new and experienced, to submit articles, short or long. Whether simple or complex, your topic has an audience. We publish and index papers online immediately after completion and then in the quarterly hard copy. Send me your ideas or submit material directly at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/measure.
In this issue, our authors bring us two diverse measurement technology articles. Subrata Sanyal reviews technology for biological warfare defense, a subject of past concern that continues today in light of world unrest and ever prevalent biotechnology. Harsshit Agrawaal and Jonathan Thompson detail a software and hardware solution for wirelessly logging mobile measurements. In the age of the Cloud, Big Data, Internet of Things, “smart cities,” environmental monitoring, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, such measurement infrastructures will become increasingly ubiquitous.
Under measurement engineering, we have two unique application papers this time. Hau Wah Lai, Wai Kuen Chow, and Kam Yuen Chan of Hong Kong’s Standards and Calibration Laboratory describe an IEC61000-4-2:2008–compliant procedure to calibrate electrostatic discharge (ESD) generators. If you have considered an ESD-immunity test program, this should fit the bill. In a team effort, their colleagues Cho Man Tsui and Y. K. Yan, with Hau Wah Lai, provide code to accelerate Monte Carlo uncertainty calculations via graphics processing units. When designing a calibration procedure, you may run a GUM Supplement 1 uncertainty propagation many times to tweak the procedures's uncertainty contributions, so try this and see how much time you save. Computer science crosscuts as many subjects as metrology, and we should leverage computing power as much as practicable.
Holding down the measurement science section, Daniel Cardenas-Garcia, Berndt Gutschwager, and Joerg Hollandt report on a radiance temperature comparison between Mexico’s CENAM and Germany’s PTB national metrology institutes (NMIs). Such key comparisons underpin SI traceability through NMIs (and thus all metrology work). If you have never visited https://www.bipm.org/en/about-us/ (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) and perused the key comparison database and other resources, you should now. While at it, take side trips to https://ilac.org/ (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) and https://www.oiml.org/en (International Organization of Legal Metrology) to appreciate how international quality infrastructure so invisibly brings interoperability to the world’s endeavors.
I thank Linda Stone and Craig Gulka, who make this publication happen, Dick Pettit for setting the journal’s initial standards and his unceasing high-quality news reports, the NCSLI Board for their encouragement and suggestions, the Taylor & Francis publication team for tolerating my learning curve, Meghan Shilling for her transition help, Mike Lombardi for his exemplary work as past editor, Cherine Marie-Kuster for the photo and support, and especially the authors and anonymous reviewers.
Sincerely,
Managing Editor
[email protected]